This past week was another incredibly green week in the markets, with the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq up between 2.4% and 3.1% week-over-week and the Russell up a massive 5.83%. Much of these gains were driven by the Fed’s interest rate decision and their flip from hawkish to dovish. This game-changing move in the Fed’s rhetoric led the markets to skyrocket upward. However, we’re not out of the woods yet! We’ve still got another big week this week!
Last week, the Fed decided to leave the federal funds rate unchanged. Additionally, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell also came out with some very dovish commentary, saying that inflation will be slightly above 2% when they start cutting rates. This, of course, was a reversion from what he has been saying over the past year and a half. The Fed’s updated dot plot also came out, indicating that there would be three rate cuts in 2024, which led to a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in the markets.
This week, we’ll see some very important economic data releases, as we enter the last full trading week of the year. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we’ll get to hear some very important housing data, starting with the home builder confidence index on Monday, followed by housing starts and building permits on Tuesday, and existing home sales on Wednesday. We’ll also get to see the second revision to Q3 GDP and Initial jobless claims on Thursday. Lastly, we’ll get to see data on both personal income and spending, as well as PCE data on Friday.
This week, we have some rather important companies reporting their earnings, such as
12/18 – Heico Corporation (HEI/HEI.A)
12/19 – Accenture plc (ACN), FedEx Corporation (FDX), FactSet Research Systems (FDS)
12/20 – Micron Technology, Inc. (MU), General Mills, Inc. (GIS), The Toro Company (TTC)
12/21 – Nike, Inc. (NKE), Cintas Corporation (CTAS), Paychex, Inc. (PAYX), Carnival Corporation (CCL), CarMax Inc. (KMX)
It will be very important to pay attention to what NKE and FDX have to say this week, as they will likely move retailer and lifestyle brand stocks in a massive way. After all, NKE is the largest athletic apparel company in the world, so it will be important to listen to what they say about how their Black Friday sales went. Additionally, FDX is one of the largest logistics companies in the world, so their tone around the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shipments will likely move stocks across the spectrum.
Monitoring the market conditions this week.
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